Tag: natal chart

In Karmic Astrology the chart is seen as a painting of past lives, the beliefs & experiences you bring into this life. Your natal chart doesn’t dictate what kind of person you are or life you’ll live. It does give you insight into yourself, and the kind of growth and lessons you are inviting into this life.

In some ways all of our lives have the same purpose: to grow spiritually, love and be loved. We just happen to each get there in our own way, exploring our talents and meeting our challenges. Astrology can be a huge help along the way as we journey towards self-acceptance and self-discovery.

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When people discuss or study Astrology, they often talk about one piece and the sign of it. While this can give some useful information, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. If you really want to understand how that piece works in a chart, you can’t look at any one piece in isolation.

Have you ever looked at a painting by Monet or one of the other French Impressionists? Up close, it can look like a hot mess. It’s can be hard to see the water lily in the water, or figure out what is being reflected. When you take a step back, you see the wholeness of the painting and can notice details that are hard to see up close.

Reading a chart is like this. You have to keep looking at the whole. If you focus too much on the sign, the house, the degree, the minutes, the element, the planet’s energy, an aspect … if you try to assign meaning to something really specific you lose the specific meaning in the chart. Two people can have their sun in Gemini, but at different degrees, in different houses, with different aspects and then there’s the fact that everything else in the chart is different. The Gemini sun with the Cancer moon is not the same as the Gemini sun with the Aries moon.

So how do you learn astrology? Learning astrology is like learning a foreign language. First you learn basic vocabulary and grammar. As your mastery of the language builds, you can appreciate humor and poetry in the language, speaking and absorbing it without first translating it in your head.

So it is with Astrology. Yes, you do need to learn what the signs mean, the houses, the planets, aspects, degrees, etc. Once you start to get these basics down you have to start integrating them. When people ask me very general questions, like “I’m a Leo, should I date a Scorpio” it’s hard for me to answer. It’s never as simple as that. I make a few general comments, that may or may not resonate with the person, because I’d have to look at both of their charts to tell them anything meaningful.

Whether or not you ever become an astrologer, studying astrology can be a fascinating hobby and over time give you great insight into yourself. The Astrologer I first studied with would tell me to keep digging into my chart, because it I had more knowledge about that person than anyone else.

Learning to see myself in the chart taught me so much about astrology. As I learned more astrology, I discovered more and more about myself.

When the moon is in the Seventh HouseAnd Jupiter aligns with MarsThen peace will guide the planetsAnd love will steer the starsThis is the dawning of the age of Aquarius …

In Karmic Astrology, the houses are areas of life experience and show focus for this life. The house of the moon, shows the area of life that (coming in) you want to invest in emotionally. It is the area where you feel most at home in this life, where you feel most able to get your emotional needs met. It’s where you came in wanting to nurture and be nurtured, shows lessons around family and mothering and gives insight to all things related to the feminine energy within you.

Moon in the first house has an emotional investment in self and the body. Most women with this placement will become pregnant at least once in this lifetime. Massage therapists and body workers often have moon in the first. There is a strong emotional connection to the body.

Moon in the second has an emotional investment in stuff. Feeling that you have resources, managing your resources (food, clothing, shelter, money, etc) is very important with this placement. There is often a connection to growing your own food and feeling connected to land as a resource.

Moon in the third has a connection to communication. It’s important to express yourself and to feel heard. Sibling relationships are often very important, in part because of the early lessons in communicating. You feel at home with books, information, the Internet, social media and exchange of ideas.

Moon in the fourth is about home and family. It’s about family history, homestead, parenting and being connected to a place. You have a strong need to nurture people in your home and feel nurtured by your home. There is a need to parent, either your own children or to have some kind of responsibility similar to parenting in your life.

Moon in the fifth is about creativity, fun, romance and kids. Having creative outlets is important for your emotional health. Performing, working with kids or doing work that brings fun and joy to people’s lives is often very satisfying.

Moon in the sixth is about music, health and healing. Nurturing yourself and others is important to your emotional well being. Feeling that you are fulfilling your karmic debts and having a job that is emotionally rewarding is important to you.

Moon in the seventh is about relationships. You always want to have a partner or best friend in your life. Working with people one on one is important to you. Feeling that things are equal and balanced helps you to feel emotionally nurtured and satisfied.

Moon in the eight is about intimacy. You need deep emotional connections. People trust you with their secrets and confide in you. They also trust you with resources and seek your counsel. The eighth house is about mystery, transformation, and being willing to go into dark places.

Moon in the ninth is about travel and higher learning. Exploring, discovering, personal growth and learning are emotionally fulfilling. Your are at home teaching and deriving knowledge out of information.

Moon in the tenth is about career and your place in the world. You need to feel some level of recognition for the work you do. It’s important to you to feel like you emotionally experience and understand your contribution to the world.

Moon in the eleventh is about friendships, organizations and group activities. You need to be active in causes and feel like you have a connection to groups of others. Being involved and having a sense of community nurtures you and helps you feel at home.

Moon in the twelfth is about escape and privacy. It includes organizations and places where people are removed from mainstream society. It is the dreamy, mystical, part of our lives as well as the closet we stick things we want out of view. Whether you’re at home in a comfy chair for some quiet time, or taking a walk out in nature, you feel emotionally renewed by being able to escape the world.

There are lots of online calculators for your natal chart. You need your time, date and location of birth. Once you have that, look and see where the moon is then google that house. Each house rules an area of life experience, and the house of the natal chart will give you some insight into what nurtures you and feeds you emotionally.

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The moon represents our emotional energy. It’s our temperament. It’s how we relate to our environment, how we process feelings, what feels like home, what nurtures us and how we nurture others. It shows us our beliefs about women coming into this life and gives us insight into our view of not only our own mothers, but also what mothers and mothering is all about. The moon is our base of feminine energy, and also rules our memories and how we attach feelings to anything.

Venus is how we give and receive love. It’s what we value and how we relate to what we value. It’s our self-esteem, it’s what we feel we have to offer the world. It’s our appreciation of art and our ability to see something as beautiful.

We all have both of these energies and we all have ways in which they relate. What aspects show us is how these energies are particularly impacted by each other. Think of dominos. If the dominos are far enough apart, touching one does nothing to the other. However, if they are close enough together, then touching one can make it fall, and knock over the other. Aspects show how energies interact with each other within us and give us insight into how we relate to and process these energies.

For people that do not have moon and Venus in an aspect to each other, there really isn’t any specific interaction or confusion regarding them. These folks will still have their strengths and struggles etc., and much can be learned by their placement in the chart. It just means that these folks process these two energies without each other. So using the short descriptions above, it means that can distinguish more clearly between how they feel about something and how they value it, between their emotions and self-esteem, between what feeds them emotionally and what they choose to be paid to do etc. versus someone with them in aspect to one another.

People that have these two energies forming a major aspect have strong interaction between the energies. This interaction is influenced by the sign, degree, house placement and rest of the chart, but part of learning astrology is about understanding individual pieces, so lets take a closer look at each major moon/venus aspect.

If they are conjunct, they see them as the same. They don’t distinguish between the two. They need their environment to look pleasing to feel at home, they need emotional fulfillment via work they are paid to do, they assign value to feelings. This means they can elevate them as well as sometimes judging them harshly and devaluing them. They value nurturing and take care of those they love. The energies work in a unified way.

If they are square, they see them in competition. They can struggle with believing they can get their emotional needs met by someone they love. They may have a hard time living with someone they love. They may struggle to process their feelings or believe that people won’t love them if they know who what their moods are really like. The energies force awareness of how the person has developed a karmic history that includes lives wherein their emotional needs conflicted with their values or the cultural values.

If they are trine, they experience a flow between them. Emotions easily bring an awareness of what matters to them. Getting their priorities straight, helps them to see how they feel about something. They are emotionally available to people they love. The two energies naturally support each other. There can be a tendency to slide too easily into taking care of people, so they need to remember to take care of themselves too.

If they are quincunx, the two form a neutralizing aspect to one another. This means that the person has a hard time accessing both at the same time. One tends to shut down when the other is very activated. This means people with this aspect can have a hard time knowing how they feel about people or situations that matter a great deal to them. They may have a tendency to be in relationships with people where they don’t feel safe to express their feelings. They may struggle to feel good about where they live. It can be difficult to believe their feelings are valued or that anything they do is worth being paid to do. They may have felt that their mother did not love them. It’s difficult to fully access and express their moon and Venus at the same time. One energy tends to shut down the other.

If they are in opposition, it’s hard to know how to get from one to the other. It’s like when you are driving down the road and you can see where you need to go, but you can’t figure out what exit to take to get over there. There is an awareness of both energies, they are both active, but it’s hard to know how to make them work together. This can tend to feel very frustrating, as if so much in life just never works out or fits together. It can be a struggle to know how to nurture what matters and manifest it so that it is a part of life. It’s as if the person feels they often come up short of getting what they want.

So if you have one of these aspects, does that mean you are doomed? Not at all. It just means you have some challenges. It means you need to get honest with yourself about the stories you tell yourself. Get honest about what you really believe and be willing to admit when perhaps your beliefs are worth reconsidering. It means you need to face your fears and start to walk through them. Everyone is lovable. Everyone has feelings. Everyone has value. Everyone can find a place where they can feel at home, people that can nurture them, environments where they can thrive. These comments are not meant to justify love lost or an unsatisfying life. They are a wake-up that you have some work to do to honor both of these energies and integrate them together in your life. It’s one of your reasons for being here and doing so will be well worth it.

Note: In a conjunction, the two objects are within 7 degrees of each other. Square is 90 degrees +/- 7 degrees. Trine is 120 degrees, +/- 7, quincunx is 150 degrees +/- 3 and opposition is 180 degrees +/- 7 degrees.

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I recently wrote some comments on a message board to someone trying to figure out the significance of Moon opposite Venus in her natal chart. Here are essentially the comments I shared.

When two pieces oppose each other in your chart, then you struggle with how to experience both energies at the same time. It’s like when you are driving down the highway and you can see the place you need to go, but you can’t figure out how to get off the highway and get over there to it. When you are focused on one energy, it’s hard to know how to get to the other one.

The Moon represents our emotional energy and Venus is our value system and ability to give an receive love. With the Moon and Venus in opposition in your natal chart, you come into this life with some karmic history of not understanding how to experience both nurturing and love at the same time. You can struggle with knowing how to be connected to family and honor your own values, how to value yourself versus deriving your value from your role within a family or your environment, having to abandon what matters to you in order to care for someone else. This aspect can also show past lives of both abandoning those you love and being abandoned by those you love. Being disowned by family because of someone you loved, as well as being the one that did the disowning.

The Moon opposite Venus can bring difficult lessons like learning to nurture others while honoring what is important to you, loving people that do not nurture and support you, struggling with what commitment really means and experiencing the line between healthy commitment and unhealthy attempts to control, feeling that your environment is at odds with what matters most to you.

It’s likely that you have some core beliefs about love and nurturing that oppose each other and create limitations that impact your ability to create a life where these two are not at odds. Any work you can do to understand these core beliefs can be a big step in letting them go and building new beliefs.

Lets go over some basic Astrology terminology. Most of you probably already know that there are twelve signs, and you can review my previous entry to see how they are derived. In Karmic Astrology, the signs are styles of expression and provide insight into your karmic history.

The houses are areas of life experience and show focus for this lifetime. Karmic Astrology uses an equal house system, so once you know the ascendant, you can easily define the houses – each of them have exactly 30 degrees. If you were born with 20 degrees and 12 minutes of Pisces rising, then your first house begins there and each subsequent house is another 30 degrees. The second house would begin at 20 degrees and 12 minutes of Aries, the third at 20 degrees and 12 minutes of Taurus, etc.

The planets are energies and the aspects between them in a chart show show how they relate and integrate. An orb is how much that angle can vary and still be considered a viable aspect. Two pieces are conjunct if they are within 7 degrees of each other. They form a square when they are at a 90 degree angle, plus or minus 7 degrees. They form a trine when they are at a 120 degree angle, plus or minus 7 degrees, and they are in opposition when they are 180 degrees apart, plus or minus 7 degrees. The sextile and quincunx are 60 degree and 150 degree angles respectively, plus or minus 3 degrees. These two aspects have a tighter orb.

The midheaven is the soul energy and is the immutable core that is YOU lifetime after lifetime. It is the point that is directly overhead at your birth, and is the cusp of the tenth house in a placidus chart. In an equal house chart it is noted as a point in the chart and is usually in the ninth or tenth house, though it can fall outside of that for people born at extreme latitudes.

The lunar nodes are points where the moon crosses the ecliptic. The south node is a summation of all of your past lives and shows karmic patterns that particularly matter with respect to this life, and your north node shows the goal of this life. It is exactly opposite the south node, because new growth can only come from doing something completely different than what you have been doing over and over again.

The degrees and minutes more fully define everything. Sometimes people talk about being born “on the cusp.” All this means is that they were born on a day when the sun changed signs. It doesn’t mean that they are a hybrid of the two signs. Each piece in the chart is in one sign or another. Not only are the signs distinct and different, but having the sun at 0 degrees of one sign is very different than 29 degrees of the preceding sign. The numbers have meanings in and of themselves, and they help to paint a complete picture of the chart.

Do you have an Astrology topic of interest? You can write to me at Lisa@karmicastrology.com and let me know what topics you’d like to see covered in this blog.

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In previous blogs I have discussed the four elements and three qualities. I explained that each of the cardinal signs seek to assert themselves. In some way they are all driven and ambitious. The fixed signs are all focused and tenacious and have a definitive quality about them. The mutable signs are versatile, restless and seek change. Let’s take a look at the moon in the elements and see how these elements combine with the three qualities to give us the twelve signs.

Fire Moons

Fire is active and initiating energy. It seeks to create experience and take action. All of the fire moons feel nurtured through experience and action. Aries (Fire & Cardinal) seeks to experience life first hand and learn by doing. Aries energy needs to feel directly involved with the experience. Leo (Fire & Fixed) is more focused and wants the experience to have meaning. These moons need to be feel valued and feel admired and to serve the greater good. Sagittarius (Fire & Mutable) is restless and desires change. These moons feel nurtured through change that leads to growth and expansion. Sagittarian moons are progressive and seek spiritual fulfillment.

Earth Moons

Earth is stabilizing concrete energy, and naturally tends to create form and solidify human experience. Taurus (Earth & Fixed) is focused and tenacious so these moons need physical pleasure and do best when they are comfortable. Virgo (Earth & Mutable) combines the versatility of the mutable signs with the earth element, resulting in a moon that needs to feel a sense of service. There’s a need to keep changing the physical, so just when everything is settled, these moons want to move again and disrupt the order in life somehow. Capricorn (Earth & Cardinal) really needs structure and flourishes when their home base is solid. They are driven to create something that has lasting value.

Air Moons

Air is changeable kinetic energy, and expands to create discovery and innovation. Gemini (Air & Mutable) moons need variety and so they are in perpetual motion. They are emotional chameleons seeking changing circumstances. Libra (Air & Cardinal) combines the intellectual quality of air and the assertiveness of cardinal to create a thoughtful desire for life to be fair. Libra seeks balance. Aquarius (Air & Fixed) is intensified innovative energy resulting in a need for the unexpected, and an ability to relate to those in all walks of life.

Water Moons

Water is steadily flowing energy that moves to shape and deepen any experience. Cancer (Water & Cardinal) is strong, assertive emotion. Cancer needs emotional security and likes to be in control. Scorpio (Water & Fixed) is intense emotion and almost thrives on crisis. Scorpio moons have much to learn and teach regarding choice. Pisces (Water & Mutable) is fluid emotion. They are are gentle dreamers with great capacity for empathy and compassion. They tend to blur the lines between illusion and reality and kind find themselves often in the role of rescuer or feeling that they are in need of rescue.

I hope this gives you a better understanding of how the elements and qualities create the twelve astrological signs.

In the last blog entry I began an exploration of how Astrology derives the twelve Astrological signs by looking at the four elements, fire, earth, air and water. In this post, we will take a look at the three qualities (also referred to as modalities) and learn how these elements and qualities combine to define the twelve signs of the Zodiac.

The nature of the element drives the kind of energy that is most naturally expressed by the sign, and the quality describes how that energy is most likely to operate. The three qualities are cardinal, fixed, mutable. The cardinal signs of Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn each seek to assert themselves. In some way they are all driven and ambitious. The fixed signs, Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius, are all focused and tenacious and have a definitive quality about them. The mutable signs, Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces, are versatile, restless and seek change.

Let’s look at Mercury in the elements, and notice how the quality of a sign differentiates it from the others in the same element.

The Fire signs, Aries, Leo and Sagittarius are all somewhat action-oriented. The Aries Mercury (fire & cardinal) seeks to initiate the conversation and to speak impulsively. The Leo Mercury (fire & fixed) seeks to continue the conversation by concentrating on a specific aspect, and speaks persuasively. The Sagittarius Mercury (fire & mutable) seeks to go from conversation to conversation and will speak with great versatility.

The Earth signs, Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn all seek to connect thought with form. The Taurus Mercury (Earth & fixed) tends to do so deliberately and indicates a very practical mind. The Virgo Mercury (Earth & Mutable) systematically examines everything, and indicates a more analytical mind. The Capricorn Mercury (Earth & Cardinal) tends to be more pragmatic, and indicates a methodical mind that focuses on what is useful.

The Air signs, Gemini, Libra and Aquarius all seek to develop and exchange ideas. The Gemini Mercury (Air & Mutable) is quick and enjoys exchanging information with others on a variety of subjects. The Libra Mercury (Air & Cardinal) is more mentally organized and seeks to compare thoughts with others. The Aquarius Mercury (Air & Fixed) delves deeply in to thoughts and ideas and then shares what is learned.

The Water signs, Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces all need to feel emotionally connected to what they think and have very intuitive minds. The Cancer Mercury (Water & Cardinal) easily expresses and engenders sympathy. The Scorpio Mercury (Water & Fixed) is capable of intense concentration and penetrates beneath the surface of an idea. The Pisces Mercury (Water & Mutable) intuitively soaks up information and relies on instinct over reason.

To really understand Mercury in a chart, the full depth of its sign is considered, as well as its house placement, degree and aspects. Though it is difficult to separate any one piece out of the wholeness of the chart, much less define it in a sentence or two, hopefully this brief look at Mercury has provided you with some insight in to the twelve signs of the Zodiac.

In the past two blog entries, I’ve taken a brief look at the Moon and the Ascendant, and considered how each of these two pieces are colored by the twelve signs. Today I’m going to begin an explanation of how the meaning of the Astrological signs are derived, by discussing the elements.

The signs are derived from four elements and three modalities. The four elements are fire, earth, air and water. The three modalities are cardinal, fixed and mutable. Identifying all the possible combinations of these elements and modalities results in the twelve signs of the Zodiac. For example, there is a fire sign that is cardinal, a fire sign that is fixed, and a fire sign that is mutable. The same is true for each of the remaining three elements, thus providing a total of twelve different ways these elements and modalities may be paired.

To begin our illustration, we’ll first look at the four elements. Fire is active and initiating energy. It seeks to create experience and take action. The fire signs are Aries, Leo and Sagittarius. Earth is stabilizing concrete energy, and naturally tends to create form and solidify human experience. Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn are the three earth signs. Air is changeable kinetic energy, and expands to create discovery and innovation. Gemini, Libra and Aquarius make up the Air trio. Water is steadily flowing energy that moves to shape and deepen any experience. Water is the element of Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces.

Each sign belongs to one of these elements, and each sign is connected to the other signs of the same element. To demonstrate this point, we’ll now look at Mercury in the elements. Mercury symbolizes the rational mind and how we communicate via language. It’s what we believe “makes sense.” Mercury in our chart shows how we think and how we learn. People that have Mercury in the fire signs are people that need first hand experience to learn. They can’t just read about it or hear a lecture. A fire Mercury also needs to connect thought with action in some way. Kids with Mercury in a fire sign usually do better when their learning environment gives them the opportunity to experience the lesson rather than simply to be taught the lesson.

People with Mercury in earth signs seek a practical application for what they are taught. If information isn’t useful, then it rarely makes sense to these types. An earth Mercury needs to connect thought with some type of form. Kids with Mercury in an earth sign usually do better when they are taught how they can use what they are learning to create something new or improve something already established, rather than learning for the sake of learning.

Mercury in the air signs gives us people that crave knowledge and information, and love to learn for the sake of learning. An air Mercury can read a book or engage in conversation on a subject that s/he will never actively pursue, just for the excitement of discovery and for the satisfaction that comes from sharing and exchanging ideas. Kids with Mercury in an air sign usually do better when they have access to books and discussions that allow them to share ideas.

A water Mercury needs to feel emotionally connected to learn. This connection can be to a teacher or to some internal desire that drives the person to want to learn. Mercury in water often feels a need to derive some sense of control and/or to feel that the knowledge is empowering. Kids with Mercury in water usually do better when they have a positive relationship with their teachers and learning environment, and feel as though what they are learning is personally enriching.

Next time, I’ll use Mercury to take a look at the three modalities, and explore how these combine with the elements to differentiate the twelve signs.